When We Were Still Human by Vaughn Foster (best ereader for textbooks .txt) 📕

All the resolve and anger she’d been building drained away with the color in her face. It didn’t matter how she felt or what he said—nothing had changed. “I forgot,” she whispered. “I can’t go back. I’m cursed, remember? I’m a danger to everyone.”

“Not exactly.”

“What do you mean?” She shot upright. Had she missed something? All everyone had been saying since she woke up was that she was a monster that would kill everyone—it was even cast onto stone in a prophetic cave painting. But Vladimir had spoken so matter-of-factly, without a trace of sarcasm or chicanery. Longing outpowered skepticism and she grabbed his arm, the first hints of hope glinting in her eyes.

“The Mark.” He pointed to her chest. “It suppresses the curse to an extent. If you wanna eat another old man, feel free. You just don’t have to.”

“What?!” Val stood up and quickly started pacing the cave, hand to forehead. Could something like that be true? If it was, shouldn’t she have known? But then again, Vladimir had screwed up the Mark. Plus, everyone had been too preoccupied.

“I have no reason to lie,” Vladimir interjected, bringing her to a halt. “It would be very inconvenient for Michael’s whole ‘cleanse the world with fire’ if his seven most valuable assets couldn’t curb their… desires to focus on orders.”

“Okay… That’s good to know,” she said slowly. “Thank you. But…” She clenched her fist. Tears stabbed at the corners of her eyes, but she held her ground. “I’m not going back.”

At this, Vladimir seemed genuinely shocked. The shadows on his skin slammed still and he stared her over intensely. “Excuse me?”

Val huffed out a breath and stomped up to the man—the monster— so they were inches apart.

“I don’t know what you’re playing, but it doesn’t matter.” His face had relaxed, curiosity replacing surprise. He sized her up like she was no more than a pouting child, but she held her ground. “As long as this is in my chest,” she placed a hand over the Mark. “You people own me. I’ll find a way out on my own. Take me back to the castle.”

Chapter 18

“This is unacceptable!” Paris exclaimed as Castor’s body trudged through the snow. “The man has legions of angels on his belt, but nooo, he sends us to get a stupid book. I know I sound like Zadkiel right now, but seriously, what the hell?”

“Polli…” Castor sighed, “the ‘stupid book’ is related to Kairos. Michael needed people he can trust to do this.”

“Then how come it’s only us three?! He sends the vampire and the ghoul on vacation, and where do you think our highness’ favorite little soldier is? Probably laying on his ass somewhere, fast asleep. I swear, if Zadkiel isn’t really Sloth, then I don’t even—”

“Can you two shut up for like two seconds?!” Avia snapped. Steam wisped around her body in smoky tendrils. “I don’t know how you two could even live in the same house, much less the same head. You’re giving me a migraine!”

“I’m sorry. She’s right, Cas,” Paris said softly. “Michael put her in our care and we’ve been fighting for hours.”

“Apologies, Avia,” Castor said. “Enough about us. There have been a lot of recent changes. How are you doing?”

“Cold,” she said flatly, then continued marching ahead. Michael had given her a fur lined coat from Le Ciel’s armory. They were soft and flexible, yet the exterior felt like solid stone. Supposedly, they were enchanted with runes to preserve heat, but they weren’t doing anything against the South Pole’s icy gales. Internal complaints continued to stack in her mind, but she was interrupted by the crunch of ice under feet. She cringed when Castor finally fell into step beside her.

“We understand, it’s a lot to take in,” he started. “Pollux and I became Envy several hundred years ago and we’re still getting the hang of things. Living in Le Ciel, doing these missions, killing demons… it’s much different than living among the stars.”

“Oh, killing demons is the best,” Paris said wistfully.

“It really is,” Castor said. “One time, Zadkiel and I were in Amsterdam and—"

“Stop!” Avia stomped in front of him—them— it, whatever they were, eyes ablaze. With clenched fists, she raised herself on her toes to meet his eyes. “Stop. I don’t need you two trying to be my friends. What I need is to get out of this fucking hellscape. I’ve lived in South America and Florida for the past seven years—I don’t do cold. And I don’t hike either, but look where your brilliant directions brought us. When we get back, I would love to discuss killing demons. God, I need to kill something. But right now, I just need you two to shut. The hell. Up.”

Before he could respond, Avia fumed off, snow melting in her wake. She’d thought the adventure would be exciting. On the contrary, it had only yielded the twins’ incessant arguing and attempts at small talk. Furthermore, they’d been trekking through flurries for hours and were seemingly no closer to their destination.

The Selkie Southern Kingdom was supposed to be known for its beauty and crystalline sky towers. Yet, the only thing for miles was white. Castor had sworn that they’d crossed from the South Pole into the Annwn at arrival, but he had obviously screwed up.

Avia huffed a smoky breath and channeled more fire out of her fingertips. If not for her flames melting a path, they never would have made it as far as they did. But even still, she was sore and sick of stomping around in soggy socks.

“Enough,” she growled. She came to a stop, with Castor almost barreling into her back. She pulled a deck of cards from her inside jacket pocket and removed a three and a four of spades.

She had never used the technique outside